158 REMINISCENCES. 



in quoting. He had a contempt for the love of honour and 

 glory, and in his letters often blames himself for the pleasure 

 he took in the success of his books, as though he were depart- 

 ing from his ideal a love of truth and carelessness about fame. 

 Often, when writing to Sir J. Hooker what he calls a boasting 

 letter, he laughs at himself for his conceit and want of modesty. 

 There is a wonderfully interesting letter which he wrote to 

 my mother bequeathing to her, in case of his death, the care 

 of publishing the manuscript of his first essay on evolution. 

 This letter seems to me full of the intense desire that his 

 theory should succeed as a contribution to knowledge, and 

 apart from any desire for personal fame. He certainly had 

 the healthy desire for success which a man of strong feelings 

 ought to have. But at the time of the publication of the 

 4 Origin ' it is evident that he was overwhelmingly satisfied 

 with the adherence of such men as Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, 

 and Asa Gray, and did not dream of or desire any such 

 wide and general fame as he attained to. 



Connected with his contempt for the undue love of fame, 

 was an equally strong dislike of all questions of priority. The 

 letters to Lyell, at the time of the ' Origin,' show the anger he 

 felt with himself for not being able to repress a feeling of dis- 

 appointment at what he thought was Mr. Wallace's forestalling 

 of all his years of work. His sense of literary honour comes 

 out strongly in these letters ; and his feeling about priority 

 is again shown in the admiration expressed in his ' Recollec- 

 tions ' of Mr. Wallace's self-annihilation. 



His feeling about reclamations, including answers to attacks 

 and all kinds of discussions, was strong. It is simply ex- 

 pressed in a letter to Falconer (1863), "If I ever felt angry 

 towards you, for whom I have a sincere friendship, I should 

 begin to suspect that I was a little mad. I was very sorry 

 about your reclamation, as I think it is in every case a mistake 

 and should be left to others. Whether I should so act myself 

 under provocation is a different question." It was a feeling 



